Henry Cooper Log Cabin Museum

Possibly constructed in 1805, it is supposedly the first two-story cabin built in Wood County by pioneer Henry Cooper, who sojourned from Eastern Virginia in 1800. The cabin was removed from its original location in Slate, which is only nine miles away from its current location inside the Parkersburg City Park. It is now a museum that displays artifacts from artifacts from the United States' Pioneer Era. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986 and The Centennial Chapter of the Daughters of the American Pioneers owns and oversees the Cabin and Museum

Henry Cooper is kind of an enigma, we know more about his cabin than who he was as a real person. He ended up in Elizabeth Pike (Slate) in 1800 and the cabin may have been build five years later1 Cooper lived in an area surrounded by good building material: pine, gum, black oak, white oak, walnut and poplar trees1. This cabin was constructed as with two stories to achieve the best lighting and conserve heat during the winter, as well as logs during construction1. The design is consistent with the standard American Log house design of this period: it has a gabled roof, and the oak logs are hand-hewnwith chinking in between them--Cooper used clay and straw1. The cabin has the same layout with exception of the two back porches as it did when Cooper built it himself: there is a kitchen space and living area on the bottom floor with a large floor on the second floor1. The large chimney now resides on the exterior of the house1.

In 1910, the Parkersburg City Council dismantled the cabin and brought to its current location in the City Park to celebrate Parkersburg's Centennial year2. The City bought it from one of Cooper's descendants, F.L. Barnett and a brother-in law, M.L, Lemasters, with the intention of preserving and making any restorations to the cabinet, for $400. Rebult in September 1910, the City Council convey the structure to Parkersburg's Centennial Chapter of the Daughters of the American Pioneers1.

The DAP transformed the cabin into a museum of various artifacts--clothes, photographs, and furniture2. These artifacts derive from the pioneer era, the 1700s-1900s2. The museum collections boasts that it possesses one of the largest button collections in the country, in addition to tree bark from a tree planted by none other than Johnny Appleseed2.